Article: “UC Berkeley’s Libraries Next Chapter May Be Cuts”

Blame the decrepit state budget, inflation, a shift from paper to electronic research – or all three. But Berkeley has reduced its library spending by 12 percent since 2008, even as the University of Michigan, its main public competitor, has spent 24 percent more.

Berkeley now spends about $50 million to Michigan’s $64 million – and has lost 70 of its 400 library professionals. An additional 20 positions will be kept vacant after retirements over the next three years, Leonard said.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.